


Do or Die

by SunsetPeril



Series: The War Over Mobius - Other [1]
Category: Sonic Forces - Fandom, Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Jackal Squad - Freeform, One Shot Collection, Pre-Sonic Forces, Sonic Forces
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:18:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22140142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SunsetPeril/pseuds/SunsetPeril
Summary: Infinite has gained a reputation for being cold, cruel and heartless. However, he is not as cold-hearted and blood-thirsty as his reputation proclaims. He cares deeply for his Jackal Squad, especially the assassin he loves, Amara. He is completely different with her, caring for her even in their dangerous, potentially deadly lifestyle. Throughout the lives they've been forced to lead, the Squad has been together through thick and thin, the poster group for a dysfunctional family.
Relationships: Infinite (Sonic the Hedgehog)/Amara Primrose the Jackal
Series: The War Over Mobius - Other [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1593580
Kudos: 6





	1. Disclaiming Author's Note

So basically this is just going to be a hugely random batch of stories about Infinite the Jackal and his lovely fiancee, Amara. Also, because the couple lives with the rest of the Jackal Squad 24/7, I decided to make this to a Jackal Squad collection as opposed to a strictly romantic/shippy collection like _Counter-Cultural Love_.

These are generally going to be all-over-the-place oneshots that will be reordered if the general timeline gets discombobulated, so don't get shocked if all of a sudden a oneshot becomes oneshot two or even three. :)

  
These are little stories that add to Infinite's character and backstory, but they are here because there won't be time, need, etc to fit them into _Episode Jackal._ They are meant to supplement his complexity, and also things I do when I get bored that end out being interesting. (Mostly things that I did when I was bored ^^) Even I don't know what might happen in these stories, we'll just have to see what Infinite does.  
  
I promise that none of these stories will warrant a "mature" rating, but individual stories may be more younger persons-friendly than others.

Oh! You'll need [this map](http://fav.me/ddn9vlr)! It won't be valid for any AU works or any stories outside of the main setting of _Episode Jackal_ , but it will keep you from maybe getting lost :)


	2. Tough, but not Stone-Hearted

**About 19 months before Sonic Forces, 8 months before the Incident at Aqua Road**

**Infinite- Age 27**

**Amara- Age 26**

  
Infinite heard a grunt, then heard something hit the ground hard.  
  
The sound came from behind him, he turned cautiously, seeing forest all around him.  
  
"What is it, Boss?" Remy asked, Infinite quickly held up a finger to signal silence.  
  
He walked closer, a figure appeared on the ground.  
  
Remy, Hunter, and Quickstrike followed him, wondering what the figure could be.  
  
Infinite gasped when he saw the identity of the figure on the ground: his fiancee, Amara.  
  
She had strained breathing, with teeth clenched, blood spilling from a dagger wound in her stomach.  
  
Infinite bent down, Quickstrike gasped.  
  
Hunter, who was often competing with Amara for second-in-command, looked surprised.  
  
"Who did this to you?" Infinite held Amara's paw.  
  
"One of the targets got a jump on me, Boss." She tried to get up, Infinite stopped her.  
  
"You're injured, Mara. No."  
  
Amara looked slightly offended. "What do you mean 'No'?! I'm a sitting duck out here!"  
  
"I'm not going to let you walk until we get that wound looked at."  
  
"It's just a flesh wound, Boss."  
  
"That's **exactly** what Marauder said before he died!"  
  
Amara gripped his paw. "Boss."  
  
Infinite sighed and gently lifted her, being extremely careful with her wound, before the other jackals escorted them back home. When they arrived back at their stronghold, Infinite laid Amara in his bed. "Medic!" He ordered, the Jackal Squad's personal medic quickly appeared.  
  
He bowed to Infinite. "What do you need?"  
  
Infinite motioned to Amara, worry echoing throughout his body. "She was stabbed during a raid."  
  
The medic approached Amara, and immediately saw her wound. He bent down and examined it, gently touching the site.  
  
Amara tied her hardest not to wince, but she could not control herself in the face of her pain.

"She'll be fine, the wound's just a flesh wound, no organs were injured. It actually isn't even that deep, just bleeding a lot."   
  
Infinite seemed to relax slightly, cupping her hands into his.  
  
"I told you that it wasn't bad, Boss."  
  
Infinite nodded. "I know that now..." He hugged Amara gently.  
  
"Mind if I get that wound patched up for you, First Lieutenant Amara?" The medic asked, she painfully remembered her wound, still untreated, and nodded. He didn't take long to bandage her injury, Amara's pain decreased once he was finished. "There you go, Lieutenant. I'd advise staying down for a day or two though."  
  
Amara gently touched the bandages. "Thank you."  
  
The medic nodded and left.  
  
As soon as the sound of footsteps ceased, Infinite climbed up on the bed, pulling Amara closer to him.  
  
"Aww, are you worried about me?"  
  
Infinite laid his paw on the wound.  
  
Amara had been a bit sarcastic when she had made that statement, but she saw that he was having a bit of a panic attack over her. She felt herself getting pulled closer to Infinite, who was holding her tight.  
  
He held her like that until night fell, when she needed to get back to her own den.  
  
She squirmed a little bit to get Infinite to pay attention to her, not her wound. "Infy. It's getting late, I gotta go back to my den now."  
  
Infinite finally stopped holding onto her and got off the bed, lifting Amara up into his arms. He took her to her den and set her down on two feet gently. "I'm gonna change your clothes for you, Mara, ok?"   
  
The words shocked her as soon as he said them, but she nodded, knowing he was just trying to take care of her.   
  
Infinite gently lifted Amara's shirt off her body and gently put a softer, looser shirt on before kissing her cheek.   
  
Amara gave him a slight smile, she kissed him back.   
  
He led her to her bed and set her down gently.   
  
Amara leaned back as Infinite's grip on her loosened, she hugged his hand.   
  
"Do you need me to stay here, Mara?"   
  
Normally, she could've made herself say 'no', but she found herself nodding and clutching tighter on his arm.   
  
"Alright, Mara, I'll be right here if you need me..." He pulled away from her arm and laid down on the floor, looking at her before closing his eyes.   
  
Amara looked at him, although he could be extremely overprotective of her, she was glad that he was there, she felt safe in his presence, knowing that he would protect her with his life.


	3. Regaining What Was Lost (Former Contest Entry and Future Canon Chapter)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An imprisoned Infinite sits alone in his cell, thinking of what was lost and dwelling in present pain.
> 
> But something he never expected to be a part of the true reality on Mobius, something that he felt too much pain to even recreate in a fake reality, will return to him in his time of despair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This work is a former contest entry that I have re-written. It is neither canon nor AU, but it will be Canon in the future as I've planned to insert it as a chapter in a later book. It is included in this group of oneshots because contains the relationship of these two and, although it is not "backstory" so to speak, one of the things that defines a character is what they would do in certain situations.
> 
> Hope you enjoy! This is still one of my favorite written works. ^^

Upset footsteps echoed through the cold and unforgiving halls of an even more unforgiving prison. The footsteps originated from a large cell with a familiar figure; Infinite the Jackal. 

His mask was not present on his scarred face, but laid discarded in a dark corner. It had several scratches on the metal workings; a result of Infinite throwing it across the cell in fury. The imprisoned jackal angrily sat down on the cold metal bench and slapped his foot down onto the ground, creating an echoing thud. He leaned up against the wall frowning, then gingerly touched the new wound on the left side of his face mindlessly. 

The wound was an assortment of claw slash marks, from a fight right before his imprisonment. However, this pain was nothing compared to how he felt inside. 

There was nothing he could do other than sit, sit and wait to see if he would be executed.

He hoped he would be executed. And he hoped they would do it soon.

It's not like he was suicidal or anything...... he just had nothing left to live for.

And the worst of it was, the Phantom Ruby had messed up even **his** mind, and with the Ruby destroyed, he couldn't end what he saw every day. He couldn't stop seeing the Jackal Squad, and it only made him feel worse.

He had started this reign of terror to show the world what it feels like to have your loved ones snatched away by death, to try and soothe his own aching heart.

Infinite cried out in both anger and pain and a rifle cocked, providing a chilling echo. "Just shoot me." Infinite snarled, setting his claws down on the cold bench, glancing over to the sound's source. "You know you detest me."

After the deaths of the Jackal Squad, Infinite had no one left for him here... or anywhere on Mobius. His eyes, one blue and one yellow, begin to sparkle and glint with tears as he turned towards the hostile wall of his cell.

"Amara......" He began, whispering to the wall. "Why couldn't you be here for me?"

The Empire had abandoned him.

Eggman was not coming back.

The Jackal Squad would come, had they not been dead.

Even through his own mental mourning, Infinite heard another set of footsteps and sat up straight, turning away from the wall. He didn't want anyone to see him mutter over his own dead.

The guard that had cocked the rifle suddenly screamed in agony, the scream being cut off chillingly.

One second passed. Then two.

The rifle uncocked.

The footsteps continued, becoming louder as time slowly creeped by.

Infinite's cell door opened.

"Captain." A whispering voice called out, causing him to look at the figure which was......

_Amara?_

Infinite couldn't believe his eyes.

"Amara?!"

The rest of the Jackal Squad then appeared at the door.

Infinite gaped, words refusing to leave his mouth. "But!! You're! You're!"

Amara grabbed the scarf on his chest and tenderly kissed his lips, silencing him. "Dead? Heh, we **were** , till that Phantom Ruby of yours glitched out and forced our souls back into our bodies."

Suddenly and without thinking, Infinite clutched his no-longer-dead fiancee in a hug, catching her off guard.

A smile flashed across the young female's face as she buried her head in his hair.

Hunter rolled his eyes and growled a little. "Enough with the sentiment!" He snapped. "Are you a mercenary or a sap?!" 

Amara sighed before she rolled her eyes and grabbed the ragged fur on Hunter's neck, speaking in a snarling whisper.

"In case you have forgotten," She began, hushed and annoyed. "we are in a prison attempting a breakout. Keep your voice down." She then let go of his neck, causing him to drop to the floor. She then pulled out Infinite's sword and held it out to him. "Ready, Captain?"

As he took the sword from her she glitched, her hand suddenly chilled as she shuddered uncontrollably between Amara and a dead creature of illusions.

She gasped once she stopped glitching, rubbing her hand. "The Ruby could not restore us completely, time is already running out, Boss. You must be quick, reclaim this world before our time once again runs out, because as much as I hate to admit it.... We are just living illusions."

Infinite quickly took his sword from her, filled with a new sense of urgency.

"Then let's go." He snarled, leading the Jackal Squad out of the cell.

He had let this world claim them once. But he was stronger now, no longer the weak, unprepared mercenary that had stumbled into this war.

He was the Ultimate Mercenary.

And he would not let this world take his squad again.


	4. Unfading Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A mourning Infinite recalls the memories of his dearly departed beloved, Amara, while sitting in a decimated Mobius, trying desperately to come to terms with a loss that he feels solely responsible for.

Infinite just couldn't quite come to terms with the pain. It had been five, maybe six months since it had happened... he couldn't quite remember through the fuzz of illusions and glitches that muddled his mind and heart. All he could clearly see was the hallway he was storming through; empty as ever, and full of an eerie, violent light that provided no escape from his unalterable reality.

His squad was dead. And it was his fault.

 _Why were you so_ ** _stupid_** _? If you'd just_ ** _listened_** _to her, they'd still be alive!_ Infinite scolded himself endlessly, with various different phases highlighting what he had lost, some more personal than others. _You would've been married to the love of your life and could have had a child on the way now! How could you have done this to yourself?! To them?!_

He halted his storming advance through the darkened hall at a door, then shoved it open and stormed into a small room. Slamming the door behind him, he ripped off the metal mask that concealed his identity.

A tall, thin window stood across the room from him, with a bed to his left, and a mirror attached to a cluttered table on his right, a little closer to the window than the bed. A small, less cluttered desk set right next to the table, with a box underneath it. The room was long instead of wide and was small compared to the other huge rooms in the building.

The table's clutter considered of several daggers, a shotgun (or maybe two... he couldn't quite remember where one of the guns were,) and various papers and other trinkets.

He'd lived here for months, ever since he had fully joined forces with Eggman after the incident at Aqua Road... the incident that took the lives of the only people who had ever loved him... He had chosen to live in this small space to feel like he was in control, turning down various large rooms offered to him. Infinite wanted to convince himself that something in his life was still stable, that he was still in control of _something_ ; but the jackal knew the truth: he had no control over himself or anything he touched.

 _Pull yourself together, Infinite!_ He placed his mask onto the smaller desk and sighed, then growled as his sigh was much more mournful that he wanted to admit.

The Phantom Ruby implanted in his chest glinted with a lethal, yet intriguing, streak of red light.

Infinite's lips parted slightly to reveal his sharp fangs as he stretched out his palm, beginning to summon the Ruby's power, then slammed the illusions into his chest once he deemed he had summoned enough.

His emotional pain dulled almost instantly, but his vision became blurry and he stumbled.

"Ugh, Going to have to remember to sit down before I attempt that once more." Infinite felt around the tiny space to find his bed, then flopped down onto it until his head felt clear and he was able to see again. He had no idea what inflicting his power onto his own brain would do to him, other than that it messed up his memory, but the result of eased pain was worth it to him.

Tampering with his own head was the only way to make Infinite feel at ease. He was alone, without anyone looking out for him or his needs.

To Eggman he was just a vicious killer, to the world he was the same thing, only violent and cold-hearted were the adjectives used... no one thought of him as anything but a killer and someone whose life was worthless.

Infinite once had people who cared about him, who thought he was more than just what his rough exterior portrayed, and he sent them to their own destruction. Now, he could never get them back; nothing eased the pain, even killing others hurt him after a while; seeing the living gather around their dead and mourn like he did several months before.

Infinite growled to himself once more. He could _not_ keep thinking about the Jackal Squad; it just hurt him too much. Forcing himself up, Infinite walked over to the window, trying desperately to prevent himself from returning to his grief.

He stared out at the landscape, a burning day bleeding into an unstable night, focusing on the flames of the destruction that he'd caused doing the same thing that he was currently doing: Trying to forget about the deaths that he couldn't help but feel responsible for; trying to end his emotional pain.

He was able to force all of them to the back of his mind. All but one.

He couldn't keep from thinking about the jackal he adored, Amara, his feisty late fiancèe.

She had saved him from an adult mercenary when they were toddlers, and they were inseparable ever since. At least, until her death tore them apart.

Once he had remembered the day when they first met, their memories flooded into his head.

_"Hey, Infi-Boss!" A child Amara called, jumping down from a high ledge and landing theatrically in front of a now ten-year-old Infinite._

_"Mara, hey! What's up?"_

_"Meee!!" She jumped all around him, then scaled a small cliff above him and looked down with a huge grin. Her fluffy tail wagged and Infinite began laughing._

_"Mara! Get down from there! You could fall!"_

_Amara squealed with self-satisfaction and began to leap down. "I'm the queen of the world!" She declared to the cliffs of their desert home, before stopping right in front of Infinite's face. "And you can be my king!"_

Infinite chuckled at the memory, shaking his head as tears ran down his muzzle.

_"No way!_ **_I'm_ ** _the_ **_king_ ** _of the world, and_ **_you_ ** _can be_ **_my_ ** _queen!" Infinite proclaimed with intense pride._

_"Ok!" She nodded over and over again. "But that still makes me the queen of the world!"_

_They laughed and fell on top of each other, rolling around and curling up in each others' tails._

As the flashback ended and the young Infinite and Amara faded away, the full-grown Infinite found himself on the floor, unable to stop sobbing.

He turned his head in the direction of the box underneath his small desk, then crawled towards the table, pulled out the box and begun to dig through its contents.

His paw settled on a frame, he pulled it out and whimpered as he looked upon the photo inside.

The photo was of the Jackal Squad when they were young teens, no older than thirteen. But what caught Infinite's attention was Amara's smile: the brightest smile he had seen from her young years.

_"I told you that you could do it, and now look at you!"_

_Amara laid in Infinite's bed, shaking slightly, with deep audible breaths every so often._

_Infinite bent down and brushed her hair away from her forehead. "How do you feel?"_

_She smiled softly and met his gaze with golden eyes that were growing stronger for the first time in her life. "I can't believe... I'm actually..._ **_free_ ** _... no one told me I'd ever be free."_

_"I knew you could do it..."_

_"Thank you, Infy... I can't ever tell you how much this means..."_

_"Don't worry bout it, Mara... so tell me, what do you want to do for your first day of not being an addict?"_

_Amara grabbed onto Infinite's broad shoulders and shakily pulled herself up to him. "I just wanna spend time with you, honestly... Maybe we could go watch a duel or something?"_

_Infinite smiled and wrapped his arms around her body, stroking her face. "Of course! We can watch several if you'd like..."_

_To Infinite's surprise and pleasure, Amara tucked her head into his neck and kissed him on the base of his chin. "You are my raksai..."_

_"Raksai?" Infinite had never heard the word before, but didn't want to upset Amara._

_"It's from the deepest dialect from the Defied Slums... it means both "One Who Heals Me" and "One Who Sets Me Free".... you are the one who healed me and the one who set me free..." She chuckled a little. "Kinda funny that such a screwy place has a word like that, huh?"_

_The two buried their heads into the other's neck, embracing each other tenderly._

_"I'm honored to be your raksai..."_

Infinite looked up from the framed photo and turned to the burning sky outside, clutching the photo against his chest. "I'm so sorry, Mara... I was not who you needed me to be..."

Infinite was so consumed with the memory that he didn't even notice his door open, much less see the little red robot come in.

"Commander Infinite, the Doctor-"

Infinite quickly faced the robot, which turned out to be Orbot. _Just what I need, one of the Doctor's stupid little bots, not like he's much of a doctor anyways..._ He glared at the robot.

"He-uhh..." Orbot stuttered at facing the former mercenary, somehow with the notion that he interrupted something.

Infinite sighed and turned back to the frame and the memory of his lost love, causing Orbot to wheel over.

"What is that, if I may ask?"

Infinite growled a little. "Doesn't matter... they're gone anyways... She's gone..." It hurt to say that they were gone, but he had to keep telling himself. Maybe one day he'd accept it and it wouldn't hurt so much.

"Are they coming back? What did you do to make her leave?"

Infinite growled, then stood up quickly and waved his paw; the sound of illusions smashing Orbot's metallic body against the outside wall was heard quickly after. He waved his paw once more to close the door from across the room. _Rub it in, won't you, Orbot?_

No one dared to understand him, and everyone who had happened to hear him out always assumed that anything bad that happened to him was his fault. Not that they were completely wrong, there were several instances where the issue was Infinite's fault, but hearing it over and over didn't help anything.

He sighed and turned back to the box, then picked up the frame and placed it onto his table before bending down and continuing to look through the contents of the box, which activated yet another memory, this time one from only a few years before.

_"Hey, Infinite." Amara stood leaning against the wall of the Squad's dirt home, rolling her shoulders up against the wall, holding a decent-sized wine glass._

_"Oh, don't tell me. You went and got yourself drunk again?" Infinite smirked at her, she just replied with a shrill laugh, only making the new-adult male more certain of his reply._

_"Maaybe." She waltzed over and pressed her weight into the crook of Infinite's collar fur; he wrapped a sturdy paw around her and took the glass away, her goofy behavior blatantly saying she was drunk; however, he couldn't quite tell_ **_how_ ** _drunk she was._

_"You've already had one addiction, Mara, don't be adding things to the list of addictions I've had to help you with." He stroked her head gently, running his fingers through her hair as she stayed nestled in his chest, eventually running his fingers down her arm._

_She sighed happily and cooed. She then looked up into his eyes, catching his attention with her own sparkling, gold eyes. "Infy? Mind if I ask you something a little serious?"_

_"How serious?"_

_She smiled calmly, but also a little seductively. "Depends on how serious you think it is..."_

_Infinite chuckled, he knew that look, he'd seen it on her face enough to know she wanted something from him. "Alright, what is it?"_

_"Well, we don't last forever, and our job is definitely more lethal than the rest..." Amara's voice traveled up and down in an unsteady pitch, Infinite recognized the change in her voice quite easily, she'd clearly been drinking someone under the table; he was going to have to keep a closer eye on his slippery vixen now that she was getting older._

_"Alright, Mara, quite toying around. What do you want?" He hoped a stern approach would help her act a little less drunk._

_"A puppy."_

_Infinite was a little stunned, but also kinda relieved that she had said something. He had no way to tell if she was being serious or if the statement had come from her being loopy, so he decided to play low and try to hold her off until the alcohol wore off. He kept running his paw down her arm to distract her until he decided what to do._

_She probably shouldn't go to her own room, she'd be unsupervised. Even though she had been twenty-one for a while and should technically be a strong, independent woman, Infinite knew too well that he should never leave Amara alone when she was drunk. It was too risky for her, and just worried him._

_He finally decided to take her back to his room to keep an eye on her; she'd been there so many times that Infinite hoped she'd settle down just like she would in her own room. However, he also knew she might attempt to have a child with him. It wasn't like he didn't_ **_want_ ** _an heir with her... he just knew she'd get extremely cranky if she was drunk and he just went with it._

_Amara had also never mentioned a desire to have a baby, so there was no way for poor Infinite to figure out what his girl wanted._

_He picked Amara up and took her to his room, laying her on his bed gently before covering her with a blanket and sitting next to her. He stroked her head until she yawned a little bit. "Don't fall asleep, Mara, I have no idea how much you've been drinking and I don't want something to happen to you." He bent down to kiss her forehead; she reached around him, pulling him down and placed a kiss on his neck. "Alright, Mara, enough." He paused, thinking about what to do next. "I'll be right back." He stood and left the room, keeping a worried eye on Amara as he left. Once he was outside, he quickly went to a cave further into his squad's territory. "Cor?"_

_A jackal with brown fur of various shades walked towards the entrance of the cave. His ears were tipped in black, black hair that had the tips dyed light blue draped over the left side of his face. Black stripes ran across his arms and tail, which had a light brown tip. "At your service, Captain Infinite." Cor bowed deeply to the mercenary._

_"Amara's drunk,_ **_again_ ** _. I have no idea how drunk though, but she keeps acting really strange."_

_"Of course she is... she's drunk!" He looked into Infinite's eyes and saw a genuine worry. "But what do you mean by 'acting really strange'?"_

_"Well..." Infinite leaned close to the medic's ears and whispered the whole story into them, Cor let them perk up a little._

_"Well, that is kinda strange, you're sure she's never once mentioned a baby before?"_

_"Yeah, I always give her my first attention when she talks, unless I'm dueling off a target, but she never talks personally while on a job, I've never heard her say anything about a pup."_

_"Well, she is twenty-one now, so there might be something about the fact that she's grown up that has sparked this instance, but she definitely needs to be checked on, I'll go back with you."_

_"Thank you so much, Cor, mind if we head back now?"_

_"Of course, Boss, I can tell that you're getting quite anxious to see her again."_

_The two jackals left Cor's cave and ran towards the main outcropping where the Jackal Squad lived, then quickly entered Infinite's den._

_However, Amara was sitting up completely when they entered, and seemed a little confused. "Infinite, what is Cor doing here?" Her voice had returned completely to normal, and she seemed to have returned to her normal demeanor and manner._

_"Amara! You're up!"_

_"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"_

_"Well, when I left to get Cor, you were acting really drunk and odd."_

_"Oh, please. I wasn't_ **_that_ ** _drunk."_

_"Mara, you were acting like you had no personal space-"_

_"I always do that."_

_"You weren't just doing that, Mara, you were acting extremely drunk, I could tell in your voice."_

_"I never said I_ **_wasn't_ ** _drunk. I just said I wasn't_ **_that_ ** _drunk." She leaned up against him and gave him another one of her seductive smiles. "So, how 'bout that puppy, Infy?"_

_Infinite chuckled a little, then nuzzled the side of her pointed face. "Sure, Mara. We'll have a puppy... Or at least try anyways." He turned his head and winked at Cor, who did a solitary wave and left the room, drawing the concealing curtain at the entrance closed._

_Amara twirled her large tail around Infinite's body, then pressed his paws against her stomach and kissed him firmly on the lips._

Infinite sighed again as another memory of her ended, but this time upon a note of what never came. The couple had tried to have kids since that day, trying hundreds of times over the years, but Amara never got pregnant. Not even once, she insisted. 

Actually, she had conceived once a couple of months before her twenty-fourth birthday, but the child died a week or two after she started showing signs of her pregnancy, the whole scenario ending in a bloody mess for the wanna-be mother. The two were too scared to try to have another baby for years.

No one talked about it. It was quickly decided that all members of the Squad, including anyone living on the territory, would pretend that it never happened.

Naturally, it was extremely distressing to Amara, who had no idea **how** she couldn't get pregnant with a surviving child after years of trying, and this upset Infinite too, who needed an heir but had found more than just an unborn heir in Amara.

He'd found a life-long partner.

_"You wanna do something tonight?" A now twenty-six year old Infinite stroked the tip of his girlfriend's ear._

_The couple sat at a bar, half-drunk thugs filled the small dugout building, it was a favorite place for the Squad, their reception had only been improved by their status in Bloodpool. Amara was having a long, rough day and Infinite had decided to take her for a drink to try and have her relax._

_"What can I get for you two tonight, your majesties?" An orange-tan caracal approached the two at the bar, laying his paw across the table revealing the maroon swirl on his glove; he discreetly kept his eyes on Amara while completely avoiding any eye contact with Infinite until the jackal cleared his throat, pointing to a bottle of wine behind the caracal. "Very well, would either of you like a lace?" He turned his eyes back to Amara, his intentions unclear but base._

_Infinite caught onto the caracal bartender and snarled. "_ **_Raziel_ ** _." His voice was full of warning. "Neither of us wish for a lace, just the drink. I will check."_

_Raziel let a small silence fall. "Yes, your majesty." he quietly slinked away from the jackals, taking the bottle that Infinite had pointed to with him._

_"So?"_

_"We tried last night, dummy."_

_"And yet we're still at a bar drinking... I'm sorry, who's the dummy?"_

_Amara's face visibly cringe, her eyes darted off to the side. Her whole demeanor changing from sassy to solemn. "Oh, so you_ **_weren't_ ** _talking about that, I'm listening." She forced herself to smirk at him, leaning a little closer._

_Infinite held her paw knowingly, causing her smirk to crumble. He didn't_ _expect for his retaliation to have bit her so intensely. "How about something sorta fancy, just you and me?"_

_"Like a date? We haven't had one of those in a while."_

_"My thought exactly." He stroked her muzzle, a smile returning to her face._

_Raziel returned to the couple and slid two full wine glasses next to Infinite. "Here you go, enjoy, you know the refill routine." He walked away from the couple._

_Amara took a few steps to go from her seat to being behind Infinite, waiting for him to hand her one of the glasses. "Infy, I can drink arsenic and be completely fine, why you gotta be so protective?"_

_"I don't really trust him, and if one of us is going to be drugged here, I'd want it to be me, not you." He then casually wrapped his arm around Amara's midsection, gently laying a paw on her stomach. He smirked when she noticed, hoping that being sassy towards her would make her laugh at him instead of upsetting her, since he realized that he didn't think about the act before he did it_ _._

_"You're a nerd, you're lucky you're cute." A thought then crossed Amara's mind that they might have gotten lucky after all the years and were finally going to have a baby. "But, uh, thanks for the concern." He removed his paw and reached for the glass that he'd been sniffing._

_"No problem. Here you go, Mara." He then handed her the glass._

_"Sweet, thanks babe." She kissed the base of his large ear and sat down, taking a drink. "Got us something softer, didn't you?"_

_Infinite nodded. "If we've got a kid on the way, you can't drink, so I thought I'd get something that didn't have as much alcohol in it so maybe you'd get used to drinking something a little decent, especially since there's no telling if it will inherit your drug tolerance."_

_"Fair." She took another drink, closed her eyes for a second, then sighed and opened her eyes, traces of tears present. "I hope we have a kid soon."_

_Infinite nodded, taking a drink out of his own glass. "I'd say something here, but you seem a little... out of it, so I'm not going to say it."_

_"Tell me. Now that I know it's coming, I won't be offended. Not that you typically offend me, that's more Hunter or Remy's style, but you know." She shrugged, trying to stay neutral._

_Infinite nodded, then shrugged. "I was gonna say that maybe if you'd take better care of yourself, this wouldn't be so hard."_

_"Eh, talk to my mother about that, she's the one that screwed me up."_

_"That's why I didn't say it, because I didn't want you to take it towards you personally." He paused for another second, thinking about whether he should further comment on her statement. "Also because I know how you feel about your mother." He finished the wine in his glass then watched Amara finish hers as well. "Wanna go?"_

_It was now Amara's turn to shrug. "Sure, why not? I wasn't craving another glass anyways, and there's not too much to do here."_

_"That's a good sign."_

_"I'm not an alcoholic and we both know it."_

_"Alright, alright." He took her paw and they walked out, heading for home._

_~~~~_

_"You almost ready, Amara?" Infinite waited outside her den._

_"Yeah, just let me finish up." Amara then walked out with in a stunning black dress. It only covered one shoulder and hardly crossed across her chest on the other side._

_Infinite couldn't help but gape, he tried to form words to describe how beautiful she was, but he was unable to do anything but let his mouth drop._

_She was stunningly beautiful and she knew it. Amara took her paw and ran it down the side of Infinite's face and giggled slightly, wrapping her tail around his and leaning slightly into his shoulder as they walked outside once more._

_~~~~_

_Later that evening, the couple sat on a cliff that overlooked a small valley-like depression in the surface of the planet, seeing a sunset of perfectly blended reds, oranges and blacks of every hue. A golden yellow outlined all forms in view, providing a fantastic view to an almost desolate location._

_Amara curled up in Infinite's tail, her head laying on his shoulder and her arms wrapped around his chest, almost unable to take in the natural beauty of a scenario so rare in Bloodpool, Infinite observed both his beloved and the stunning sunset with marvel. "It's so beautiful," she began, her voice an awed whisper. "it's just like the sunset we saw when we fell in love... isn't it?"_

_"It is... although it might be better..." Infinite pulled her up to stand with him, caressing the side of her face. He didn't know how the next thing he'd planned was going to turn out, but he felt like it was the right time to do so. "Amara, I don't know what I'd do without you, I don't know if I would even be here today if I hadn't of had met you back when we were just pups..."_

_"Infinite?" Amara began to become worried about what he was going to say._

_"I would have been trapped in a worse place without you, I can take you for granted sometimes, but I wouldn't have been able to do anything that has made today possible if you didn't stand up for me that day... you were the first person to ever love me, and you still love me today throughout all my flaws... how I don't understand... I've been thinking about it, and I want to do my best to return the favor, though I may never fully repay you to the point where I've felt I've done enough for you." He took a step back, then a shaky breath, before he bent down on one knee, pulling out a ring. "Amara Jackal, will you marry me?"_

_Amara began to cry and wrapped her arms around him. "Yes, Infinite! Yes!" She pressed her head into his and began to fan herself, on the verge of hyperventilating because of her pure joy, whispering 'yes' over and over._

_Tears of joy also began to roll down Infinite's face, he leaned a little closer to her and kissed her lips, she quickly joined in on the kiss._

_As they pulled back, their paws stayed joined and they gazed into each other's eyes. Infinite gently took Amara's left glove off and slid the ring onto her scarred paw, she lifted her paw up and gazed at it with an almost disbelief._

_"I'm getting married..." She whispered, then hugged Infinite tightly, a second wind of joyful tears pouring down her face. "I love you, Infy, I love you so much..."_

_"I love you too, Mara, I can't even begin to tell you."_

_"I'll stand up for you the best I can, until I can't be there for you anymore, I won't abandon you, Infy."_

_"I know you won't, Mara."_

_The newly-engaged jackals continued to hug each other before returning back home, where the others quickly noticed the ring on Amara's paw._

_"Amara! Where'd you get the pretty ring?" Remy asked._

_"Wait. Ring?" Hunter deadpanned in surprise._

_"Aye, Amara's got a ring on her paw." QuickStrike promptly replied to the shocked male. "Doncha know what that means, or are you two too busy messing around to understand?"_

_He waited for the two higher-ranked jackals to respond with confused gestures and faces. "Aye yi, maybe you two should spend less time in the bar, it means she and the boss are getting hitched."_

_"Ohhh!" Remy proclaimed with understanding. "Wait, what's 'hitched'?"_

_"I second that 'aye yi', QuickStrike." Both Infinite and Amara butted in with flat monotone voices in sync._

_"Ooh, I guess that's a 'we second' then." Amara added, noticing the in-sync statement._

_"Uh, hate to be the one speaking 'gainst the boss but, we're Bloodpool thugs, we don't 'get hitched,' it's kinda against the way we run things down here. We get born, get thrown out at a young age, survive long enough to become fertile, then spend the rest of our short lives trying to have offspring and keeping ownership of the other parent until the kid's old enough to get thrown out itself. We don't run stuff like those civilized people from Mobius do, there's never been a married couple, it's like law." Hunter tried to state that marriage in Bloodpool just did not exist._

_"You forget we're bred to break the law, Hunter." Infinite stated._

_"Yeah, but not_ **_Bloodpool_ ** _law! That's what keeps us from making ourselves extinct, even if it is pretty much a complete opposite of Mobian law."_

_"Me and Infinite are getting married, Hunter, now accept it." Amara snarled, revealing knife-sharp fangs._

_"Wouldn't challenge Amara, she outranks you by quite a bit of authority, and you know the boss will fight on her side." QuickStrike warned._

_Hunter growled, but stood down. "Don't say I didn't say anything..."_

_Amara looked at Infinite and smiled, then looked down at her ring._

_"You like it?" Infinite looked at it too, it looked just as lovely on her as he had hoped._

_"It's_ **_beautiful_ ** _, I can't believe you'd actually do something like that... especially for me."_

_"Of course, you're my one and only, it was just right."_

_Infinite turned to the others. "Me and Amara are going to our den, now."_

_They walked to Infinite's den, then he pulled the curtain across the door._

_"So this is **our** den now?" Amara asked, looking around. "Now that we're engaged and all?"_

_"Yep, I figure that we can use your den for the baby when it finally comes."_

_"Heh, we'll have to do a lot of cleaning out in there to make it appropriate for a baby."_

_"It's not impossible, and even if it was, I've already accomplished one impossible thing." He winked at Amara, she just chuckled, took her shirt off and flopped onto the right side of the bed, he soon followed, curling up next to his fiancée before they fell asleep._

Infinite pulled his left glove off as the memory faded away, revealing Amara's engagement ring on his own paw. He'd gotten it from her body after Shadow killed her, knowing that she wouldn't be left to rest in peace if knowledge got out that it was still on her body. 

He missed Amara dearly.

She had died a month before their wedding was supposed to happen. She was twenty-seven. Infinite was twenty-eight both now and then, and the thought of living an entire life without her hurt.

He adjusted the ring on his paw then clutched his paw into a fist and pressed it against his chest.

**"Infinite?"**

He looked around, searching for who called his name. "Who's there? Who... who are you?"

**"Someone who has been watching you, although you have not been able to see me."**

The voice sounded like it was from outside, so Infinite crept towards the window where the sky began to twist, almost like the colors were collapsing in on themselves, and a black void formed, taking a canine shape before two gold eyes formed in its black head, glowing as they turned to face Infinite.

He yelped as the void came towards him, flaring out the paw with the ring to get the creature to stop.

The void glitched as color returned to its body for split-seconds at a time, silver hair in a ponytail, black fur, golden eyes, and a fluffy tail that ended in silver.

Infinite couldn't believe his eyes. "Amara?!"

 **"Yes. I am here. I never left your side, but I could not physically return to you instantly after death."** Amara reached out a black, inky paw and stroked Infinite's face, he did the same, or tried anyways.

"Why can't I touch you, Mara? You can touch me."

" **I must touch you first, apparently."** She laid her paw back on his and he returned her loving stroke.

"I missed you so much."

**"I know. I couldn't bear to see you mourn any longer, so I went to the angels' King and begged to be allowed to visit you. He said yes."**

Seeing that she was still touching his paw, Infinite pulled his late fiancee into the room. "I was thinking about all of you guys today... how are the guys?"

**"They are well, no pain or sickness exists in Heaven and for angels, no sorrow or trouble. However, as wine exists but becoming drunk or addicted is impossible, you can only guess what they've been doing."**

Infinite laughed, Amara did too. "I sure can, oh boy..." he continued to laugh a bit more. "It's nice to hear your voice again, even if you are a black hole."

**"I only appear as a black hole. You are corrupted, my beloved, you've let the ones who hired you rule and have let grief consume you, and that's why I appear as a void."**

"You can turn back to normal, right?"

**"Only if you can defeat your corruption and believe in me as well as yourself. But don't worry, I won't disappear again."**

Infinite gripped onto her. "Thank you, this time, you are truly _my_ raksai."

**"No problem, Infy, this was my vow to you."**

Even with her comforting whispers, Infinite continued to cling to her spirit.

She had come back for him, and he was comforted.

Now it was time for him to show his gratitude by working to avenge her fully... but also show her just how much her love meant to him.


	5. A Hostile Return - Part One

A middle-aged jackal dashed through the burnt, harsh landscape of the Bloodpooliean desert within the Canyon, on all fours as he panted from the heat. He knew he wasn't being chased, he just had an odd adoration for pushing himself to sprint long distances and with where he was headed, he was going to need it. With great speed, he bounded over fallen rocks from a recent landslide as he approached his destination, the territory of the Jackal Squad. Ducking over to the side of the valley walls, the male tried to get as far into the area as he could before getting caught.

However, an ever-attentive male watched the horizon, spotting the older male the instant he came into sight of the post. "Hey!" He growled, staring down at the intruder. "This is my ground. You have no business here."

The older male nearly collapsed at the voice, crouching to the ground. "I-I know... I wish no malice!"

"Then leave."

He hesitated. "I am looking for someone... I have great reason to think they are here."

"You're seeking my female, are you not?"

"Uhh, yes, but-" The middle-aged jackal was cut off by the young male jumping onto him and pressing his claws into the intruder's shoulder.

"Amara is not for claim. If you wish her and her pups, you must fight to the death."

"Woah! I do not wish to take her from you! I just wish to reconcile a past relationship."

"Who are you? Amara never spoke of anyone but her mother."

The intruder desperately attempted to creep backward, stammering. "I don't know what I may call myself, just what I may call her."

"Okay then, what is it?" He snarled, pressing harder into the male's shoulder.

He gulped. "My name is Lusk; I seek Amara... my daughter."

"Amara!" Infinite stepped into the den system with a tone that was more professional than the jackals were used to.

A strong female with glowing gold eyes and fine features stepped out from a corner, pronouncing herself with a roll of her chest. "Boss."

Lusk, who was standing right behind Infinite, gasped at the visual of his daughter.

"There's someone here to see you, Amara." Infinite stepped to the side to allow Amara to see her father.

She bared her teeth and snarled instantly upon his presence. "Lusk. I told you never to come searching for me if you valued your life."

Remy, seeing Amara's anger, gulped and ducked further into the den system.

Lusk gulped once again. "A-Amara..."

While Lusk shook at the sight of his powerful daughter, Hunter, Remy and QuickStrike had ducked off to safely view the scene. "Who do you think that is?" Remy whispered.

"I don't know, but Amara sure seems to." Hunter muttered back.

"The boss seems oddly okay with him being in the den and talking to Amara, so he must not be trying to take her." QuickStrike whispered with curiosity.

"He seems too old to be a new member, though... and we have enough guys here anyway, five-to-one ratio. If we're getting new jackals then we need girls!" Remy near complained.

"Remy, hush your muzzle! Quit worryin' about females!"

"Both of you get quiet! No one can _hear_ _over_ you but if you don't _shut up_ then the boss _will_ _hear_ you!" QuickStrike snapped through a whisper.

"Why do you still come after me?" Amara snarled.

"Amara... my daughter..." Lusk reached out for Amara's paw, enraging the female.

"Oh! So _now_ I'm your daughter?! _Now_ after refusing to come for me for twenty-three years?!" She clenched her teeth and her fists and her breaths changed to snarls in a panting pattern.

"I didn't know you existed! I never knew she was pregnant with you!" He reached out and touched the fur on her neck, lightly brushing the white-tipped fur downwards. A little marking in the shape of a dove formed. Lusk then took Amara's paw and brushed the fur on his neck the same way, revealing a swirl marking in the exact same place. "I'm sorry for what Taruna did to you, if I had known I would have braved her a little while longer to save you. I don't want to spend the rest of my life pretending that I never had a child, to do the same thing the rest of Bloodpool does, I want to make this right with you. I want you to be my daughter... I _want_ to be your dad, but I can't do that if you don't forgive me."

Amara's breaths began to grow shaky, everyone present watched her to see what she'd do.

Both Infinite and Lusk kept their eyes closely on Amara, hoping for her forgiveness.

Amara shook her head and ripped away from Lusk, voice in a wailing shriek. "Infy!" She bounded into his arms and buried herself there, sobbing.

Infinite clutched her close to himself, then looked up at Lusk and shrugged.

Lusk looked down and sighed.

His daughter sure had her mother's fury.


	6. A Hostile Return: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Infinite talks with his girlfriend about her relationships with her parents.

Later that night, Infinite sat on the couch in the main part of the den, sighing. Not long afterward, he heard the sound of someone's paws hitting the ground, and a slender figure soon appeared in the main room. "Amara. I thought you went to bed." He smiled at the sight of her.

The female then looked around the room before proceeding to remove her shirt from her body, showing off the stripes on her torso. As she dropped her shirt and moved her paws back to their neutral positions, Amara placed her right paw on her hips.

Infinite stood and walked over to her, gently wrapping his paw around her waist.

She leaned into him, placing her paw onto his chest and her muzzle into the crook of his neck. Both her and her breathing seemed a little shaky.

"Hey, what's the matter?"

Usually, she wasn't this clingy. She began to stammer and inched closer. "I-I-I just..."

"Is this about Lusk?"

She instantly began to stammer again and gasped for breath as she tried forming words.

Infinite gripped her a little harder and took one of her paws in his. "Hey, it's okay, it's alright..." He pulled her closer to his body. "You're afraid of him, aren't you? Afraid that he's going to be like your mom..."

Amara nodded, then tears began to leak from her eyes. Her breaths turned spastic. "You... you don't know what she did to me!" She began shaking and tears spilled from her.

Infinite held her to try and contain her shaking. "Hey, Mara, look at me." He waited until she was focused on him, tears still spilling from her eyes. "I'm not saying I have any idea of how horrible your mother was, nor am I trying to." He looked at her, then sighed and squeezed her paw. "C'mon, sit here." Infinite sat back down, pulling her down with him. He let her curl up next to him, allowing her to use his tail as a blanket. Infinite kept a paw on her upper waist, stroking her gently.

Eventually, she calmed and fell asleep. Her body was pressed up against his as she smiled and unconsciously lifted her head from his shoulder to kiss him.

Infinite tenderly kissed her head in return, being careful to not wake her. "Love you too."

A gentle sigh of adoration was heard, but not from either of the young jackals.

Infinite turned his head from his beloved to find the older jackal who was a factor in her earlier panic. "Lusk." The captain said somewhere in between a whisper and speech. "You're still here?" His voice was slightly curious, which confused the elder male.

"I-I thought it was well to- wait, you're not mad?"

"Not really, just surprised. I thought you would've bailed after she had refused to take you."

"Not instantly, we both have similar feelings towards the lady who brought her here. I knew she would take me in a similar fashion and wouldn't welcome me. I was, however, surprised by how long she was able to hold herself."

Infinite glanced down at her, then looked back towards Lusk once stroking her again. "I think she's afraid of you." He mentioned with solemn softness.

"That was something that I did not anticipate, but it makes full sense now that I'm hearing it. What makes you say so?"

"Well, for starters, I know that she tends to be a lot more aggressive to things that she finds threatening, she also ran from you sobbing. Also, I think she just had a bit of a panic attack when I asked her about why she was acting strange. I said your name and she started shaking."

"She thinks I'm going to treat her like her mother did," Lusk responded without a pause.

"Yeah. How'd you- have you been listening in on us?"

"Eh, just a tiny bit. However, I didn't hear too much, haven't been out here too long. Both of us know her mother to a frightening point. I had a child through her, Amara, and that child was abused. How badly, however, I don't know."

Infinite looked back at his sleeping lover, then stroke her again as if he was trying to keep her asleep. "I know. At least some vital things."

"What happened?"

"Well, first of all, Taruna tried everything to kill Amara off before she was born. That didn't work and Mara was an addict until she was about twelve. Since for some reason Taruna was kept from snapping her neck, Mara was viciously beaten until..." Infinite found that he was becoming choked up and he wiped away a small flood of tears.

"Until what?" Lusk was horrifyingly concerned.

Infinite took a deep breath and gulped, looking at Lusk. "You really wanna know what happened?"

"Yes! Maybe if I know, I can show her that I'm not anything like Taruna. Maybe I can get her to warm up to me."

Infinite nodded and took a deep breath, giving him a grave look. "Amara's mother tried to drown her in acid."


	7. A Hostile Return: Part Three

Author's Note: This chapter was co-written with JustThatOneFox from Fanfiction.net. I am extremely grateful for his help.

As a result of the collaboration, this part contains some slight coarse language that normally would not appear in one of my works.

But still, please enjoy ^^

_~~~~_

The next morning, Amara woke up in Infinite's room. It took her a moment to realize where she was, as the last thing she remembered was Infinite whispering into her ear on the couch, telling her that everything would be okay. "Ugh..." she groaned as she awoke, trying to orient herself. "Infinite?" She looked to her left, which was where her lover slept, only to find his place empty. "Must've already gotten up... which is a little odd, he usually sticks around until we're both up." She stood herself up to look around, then walked outside.

"There she is." Infinite's voice welcomed her. He walked up and brushed his paw against her face. "Are you better today?"

She nodded, placing her own paw over his paw which was on her face.

"You want something to eat, Amara?" Remy asked.

"I'm not hungry, Remy, but thanks." Amara's expression seemed worn.

Remy just nodded and left, motioning for the others to follow as soon as he had a notion that the pair wanted to be alone.

Infinite took both her paws in his and pulled them to himself. "Come with me."

Amara followed, letting him hold her paws as they walked.

Infinite took her out to a ledge that jutted out from the area of the main den system. He sat down, leaning against the wall with Amara next to him.

"I can't believe I slept this late." Amara muttered, looking at the sun high in the sky, near midday. "Why didn't you wake me up?"

"You needed the rest, Mara, especially after your breakdowns yesterday." Infinite then gripped her paw and gave her a look that told her that he wasn't mad about her breakdowns, keeping her from taking offence. He kissed her forehead, causing her to smile a little. "You were so tired yesterday, you couldn't process anything." He stroked her side, still bare from the night before.

"Yeah..." she sighed. "I'm just..."

"Scared? I know, babe."

Amara took off her gloves, which she'd fallen asleep wearing, and stared at the scars on her paws.

"They hurt?" Infinite looked into her eyes, concern etched on him.

"No more than normal, just the thought of... ya know..."

"I do, but he's **trying** , Mara. He's trying so hard to show you that he's not her. You've just gotta give him a chance, babe."

She looked down at her paws again, then clasped them together. "Are you sure he won't hurt me?"

"Give him a chance, Mara..." Infinite then leaned towards her, whispering. "but if he does hurt you, I'll tear his throat out. 'Kay?"

Amara smiled and nuzzled him. "Okay."

"You're willing to start over with him?"

Amara looked down at her scarred paws again. "I'll see if he earns it."

Infinite nodded, then lifted one of her paws and brushed his fingers over the scars. "I'll be right back." He kissed her forehead and left. He looked back at her before walking off. He didn't _want_ to have to take down Lusk for Amara, but if he was just playing them both, Infinite would have to do what was necessary to protect her.

~~~~

_Amara travels away from Jackal Squad's base to find her father. According to a few clues she got from nearby passerbyers, a middle-aged jackal was heading towards the lush and dense forests of Bloodpool..._

~~~

Amara slowly approached the entrance of the dark forest. As she peered into the darkness, all that she could think about was why her father would even come here in the first place. Did he have some sort of emotional attachment to the location? Or was it because he wanted to get as far away as possible?

_Of course, Father just_ **_had_ ** _to venture into this place. Does he even realize this is enemy territory?_

Amara shook her head. "Hmpf. No matter, I better go find him right away before I lose someone I might care about."

The jackal checked the ground beneath her, and sure enough, there were shoe prints embedded in the soil.

"Tracks..." _*sniff sniff*_ "...and they're fresh too. It's got to be Lusk." She immediately dashed into the forest, unaware that a pair of red eyes were watching her from above...

Meanwhile in the deepest part of the forest...

"Urk, I should've never shown my face to her..." Lusk muttered. "All those years... wasting my life away drinkin' and gamblin'... when I should have been looking for her!"

Lusk violently slammed his fist against the bark of a nearby tree. Panting, Lusk slowly checked his paw. It was bleeding; his knuckles cut open from the brutal punch.

Lusk continued to stare at his now profusely bleeding fist. Then he frowned. Tears slowly leaked from his eyes as he winced; not in pain, but in sorrow. Suddenly, he kicked the same tree with all the force he could summon, then fell to his knees.

 _*sniff*_ "All my life... I could have been with her... My daughter... All my life I could have been searching... for Amara..." Lusk said under his breath.

"Because I've been gone for so long... I've become such an untrustworthy person. The many lies I've told over the years may have not meant much to me during my time as a young jackal, but... if I knew I had a daughter then..."

Lusk clenched his paws in tight fists. "I could have been better... better than that poor excuse of a mother Amara had. She didn't deserve to be raised like that, no child should. It's my fault as to why she's the way she is now. And she hardly even trusts me..."

All the middle-aged jackal could do was just sit there, unmoving. If he couldn't be the man he used to be, let alone connect with his own daughter, then who was he now? Just some washed up old jackal with no purpose? A drunk? A worthless mutt who should be wiped off the face of Mobius?

"No... no, I'm not any of those things." Lusk got back up from his position. "There's still Amara... She's my will to live." He said proudly.

A sudden rush of wind blew by Lusk, snapping him out of his ordeal. Immediately, he pulled a pristine metal sword from his sheath and searched frantically around him.

"I know you're there... eavesdropping on me, huh?" He spoke aloud. "You got real nerve to be spying on an old guy like me who's hit an all-time low."

"Yep, you absolutely did." A feminine voice snarked back.

Lusk's eyes shot wide open. "A-Amara is that-?" On cue, the young female jackal dropped down from above and looked her father in the eyes.

"Did you really mean it?"

"Which part?"

"All of it." Amara laughed a bit. "Is your life so pointless without me that you would feel so... worthless? Am I that important?"

"Amara... I've spent my whole life running away from problems. I've spent even more getting into them. Twenty-three years ago, I was a young lad who hardly didn't care about anyone or anything. Little did I know that I would be the cause for making such a beautiful thing that would mean the world to me."

Lusk started to tear up a bit. "I threw away all those years being such a stuck-up piece of junk... when I should have been there for you. I'm sorry, little one..."

Amara stammered herself. Could she really be _that_ special to someone who neglected to come for her throughout all her needs during the painful time called her childhood? He caused all her pain, even if he wasn't the inflictor... so why was he so concerned now? Was he just sorry that he had consequences from when he was her age, or is she really his last will to live? _He said that he's spent his whole life running from his problems... that's probably the only reason that he came back... but he seems to be just completely trashed, there's no way that I'm that important to him, is there? Am I really the only thing his pathetic life has left?_

_Do I really mean the world to him?_

Their eyes locked, father and daughter, two sides of a broken bridge. Neither could remove the other from their view. It was almost as if both Lusk and Amara were trapped by the thoughts and doubts they had towards the other.

Suddenly, a spear whooshed right between the two jackals, landing just at their feet. Lusk and Amara both were stunned, but not paralyzed. They both immediately noticed that the way the spear was thrown meant that it came from above. So the two of them checked the trees, searching for the culprit.

"I don't we're the only ones in this forest, Daughter." Lusk said uneasily. Amara on the other hand shook her head.

"Father, I don't know if you realize this but..." Amara was about to continue, when once again, more spears came flying towards them from above.

Lusk and Amara dodged as many spears as they could, hoping to not get punctured by one of them. Then a figure appeared from the dense canopy above them. Without much light, it was hard to make out what exactly the creature was.

"You! Invading territory you are! Leave now or else!" The shadowy figure shouted from above the jackals.

Lusk of course was quick to talk. "You really think I'm just gonna walk away after you threw a bunch of spears and nearly killed my daughter? Hell no! I ain't leaving until I kick your butt!" He snarked.

"Keep your mouth shut, Dad! This is the territory of—"

Before Amara could finish, more spears flew towards them, and once again, Amara and Lusk had to avoid another attack. Amara was starting to think that having her dad around may be a bad idea. And just when it couldn't get any worse, more shadowy figures appeared above from the dark canopy of the woods. Each figure dashed rapidly towards different tree branches, jumping back and forth to confuse the enemy. (The enemy being the jackals of course.)

"Ugh... these things are givin' me a damn headache..." Lusk complained as he spun in circles to keep his eye on the blurs rushing past him. Amara on the other hand wasn't having it. Closing her eyes, she focused and honed her senses on where exactly they were coming from. Then with blinding speed, Amara unsheathed her blade and sliced one of the shadowy figures without hesitation. Amara let out a heavy breath, looking down at the enemy she had just slain.

"Damn I knew it..." Amara groaned.

"Knew what, dearie?"

"Look for yourself." Amara pointed at the dead body. "Hyenas." She answered. "We're in their territory."

"You must be joking? You're telling me those rascals are camping out here in this forest? That's bull."

**_*TWACK*_ **

Amara was smacked straight across the left side of her head by a very hard weapon. Since the figure was moving twice as fast, the attack was far more powerful, and thus leaving a quite visible gash on the side of her head.

Lusk dashed over to his daughter to see if she was badly injured. "Amara, talk to me! You alright?"

Amara winced in pain as she could feel the gash on her head. She attempted to touch it, but it only ended in even more pain. Though on the verge of tears, Amara did her best to stay strong.

"Dad... I'm fine really... let me fight-"

"Dearie, you stay low and keep pressure on that wound." Lusk handed her a rag in hopes it could help her for the time being.

Just behind Lusk, all of the Badlands Gang members stopped their rapid movements and landed perfectly onto the soft soil beneath their feet. The grunts all aimed their spears and bows at Lusk, who was kneeling by his daughter.

"We now bring great leader, Remi!" A grunt yelled. Sure enough, a tall looking hyena with a gun holster stepped out from the crowd of pawns.

"Well well well, looks like we got ourselves some rule breakers, boys." Remi snickered as he smoked his cigarette.

He stood, tall and dangerous before Lusk and his downed daughter. "Thought you fancy hounds were aware of our boundaries... or is nothin' swell enough for 'your majesties?'"

At the conclusion of his speech, the pawned crowd erupted into cackles. "Hah! Your cap'n is gonna pay this time!" One of them howled in laughter as he punched his paws together.

Remi approached Amara specifically. Lusk prepared to fight back, but the hyena ruler began to talk to the wounded female. " _You_ , I know, are your captain's favorite of all females. It would produce a fair price to take you from him as punishment. However, both you and I know that there are only two uses for a female... and based upon what I've heard, you fail at the greater one."

The hyenas once again erupted into cackles. "Yeah!" Another one of them proclaimed. "When the great Jackal Squad goes extinct, it's gonna be all your fault!"

Amara forced herself upwards, shaking as her pain kept her down. "Now just where've you been hearing this lie?! In a bar where everyone's drunk stupid? The Captain wields his own desires, nothing more."

The leader seemed to snicker. "If I took you, even for the use I'd know you'd fufill, we'd both find out the truth soon enough. Wouldn't we, your majesty? All it takes is once..."

Amara cringed both in pain and disgust. "I'd rather the rumors be true than bring a child before you. Save two of the potential three from misery."

"You see, you are in _my_ territory now and have fallen to me and my gang here. You don't really get a say... maybe it'll give that heterochromia-d mutt a good knocking. Teach him that sentiment doesn't keep tales alive 'round these parts, only heirs do. Maybe then he won't leave his legacy in the paws of a solitary female... although I can see his reasons. You're quite fine." The leader gripped Amara's face with his paw, holding her up while he looked her over, nodding. "Seize her, boys."

"Amara!" Lusk tried desperately to leap between her and the hyenas, but Remi shoved him down. Two other hyenas prevented him from getting back up while Remi took what he desired.

The hyena gang took Amara for themselves without problem. Multiple others held the female in place, forcing her to submit, while their leader crudely snarked once more. "You may be useless for creating pups, but you'll be priceless for morale. The boys will just _love_ having you for their own.... And of course, I will too."

Amara snarled, her snarls turning to whimpers as the crowd of males tightened their grips on her. Lusk would have to quickly develop an effective plan to get her back.

Lusk suddenly felt a chilling feeling come over him. A feeling that he had rarely felt in all his years. Lusk struggles to break free of the brutes who held him to his knees, forcing him to watch his daughter being taken away from him once again. Through all the pain, Lusk saw his daughter; tears were falling from her eyes. Then, in a cry of agony, Lusk snapped.

"RRRAAAGGGHH!!!" Lusk screamed, breaking away from the brutes. Lusk started to beat the living hell out of the hyenas who were closest to him. Every punch he threw at the enemy was full of rage and bitterness.

Remi analyzed his situation and thought not that he was in serious trouble. All he did was snicker to himself.

"Heh heh, look at that." Remi whispered into Amara's ear. "Someone is trying to fight for you. How nice..." He gripped Amara by the face tighter. "But he stands no chance against my gang." He said sinisterly. "Seize the bastard!" He ordered.

On command, more Hyenas appeared out of nowhere. Of course, Lusk wasn't phased by the sudden appearance of more enemies. Almost on instinct, he whipped out his .345 revolver from his holster, and started to fire at the incoming enemies. One by one, Hyenas were getting shot and brutally attacked by Lusk. When Amara's captors joined the fight, Lusk wasted no time in mercilessly killing them. One Hyena, who was the first one to get his paws on Amara, and his brains blown out at point blank range by Lusk.

Amara could do nothing but just watch her father go on what could only be a killing spree. She knew that he was fighting back for her, but she saw something different in her father's eyes. A dark red tint clouded his eyes, and even Amara noticed a black aura radiating from Lusk as well.

"No no, please, don't kill-" The grunts was cut off; his neck being snapped by Lusk. Finally, all of the Hyenas were either killed, or fled from battle. Now it was just between Lusk and Remi, the leader of the Hyena Gang.

"Wow I'm impressed, old man." Remi calmly said, slowly clapping. "You really showed those useless goons how to fight, now didn't you?"

Lusk started down Remi, the rage clearly showing. The jackal growled fiercely, preparing to take another life.

"Nah ah, forgetting something?" Remi then gestured to Amara, who was still being held onto in his grasp. "Make one move and the girl gets it."

Lusk still growled, even revealing the sharp and deadly canines. He gripped onto his sidearm, getting ready to fire, but he then heard a voice.

"Dad..." Amara called out to him.

Slowly, the dark red hue in Lusk's eyes disappeared, returning to a normal amber color. He looked at his daughter once again, but he didn't feel the rage that had clouded his mind. Instead of feeling furious at the sight of her, he felt... calmed. He had expelled his anger in a violent blast and now that he had no more fury harbored inside, his rage eased.

"Listen up you mutt, let go of my daughter. Or else..."

Remi chuckled. "Is that supposed to be a threat or something?"

"I said: let. her. go."

"Oh yeah sure, I'll let her go..." Remi aimed the gun to Amara's head. "But not until I kill her first."

Amara shut her eyes, bracing herself.

**_*BANG!*_ **

A loud gunshot rang throughout the forest, and after a few seconds, the sound settled. Amara opened her eyes, wondering why she wasn't dead. Then she heard a pained groan coming from right next to her. Amara jumped at the sight. It was Remi, lying on the floor in pain; grasping his rapidly bleeding hand. He gaped for a moment before beginning to scream.

"My hand!" Remi cried out. "You shot my hand you crazy jackal!"

Lusk could only smirk and chuckle to himself as he watched the pathetic hyena groan and turn on the forest floor.

"Listen mutt, I warned ya and you didn't listen to me." Lusk remarked. "Maybe next time try not to ever lay a hand on my daughter, you hear?"

Remi growled at the old man's words. "Screw you!" Very sluggishly, Remi used his left hand in an attempt to pull out another pistol.

**_*BANG!*_ **

Another gunshot rang out, and another pistol came dropping to the floor. Remi, once again, had his hand shot by Lusk. Only this time, both of his hands were blown to pieces.

"A-ah- y-you crazy..." Remi stuttered as he helplessly stared at his destroyed hands.

Lusk approached Remi and put a gun to his head, and then spoke very calmly to him.

"Listen carefully, pal. You and your little gang of misfits are no match for me, my daughter, or even our entire jackal clan. So I suggest, you get your butt out of here and _never_ show your face around here ever again... UNDERSTAND?!"

"Y-yeah.... I hear ya...."

Lusk rolled his eyes. "Get outta here before I'm forced to put a bullet in your head. Go on, get!"

Remi ran away as fast as he could from Lusk, hoping he would never see him for the rest of his days. At long last, the gang battle was over, and Lusk holstered his weapon and sighed in relief.

"Phew, thank Chaos I'll never see those hyenas again." Lusk chuckled. He turned to his daughter and saw that she was still tied to a couple of ropes Remi bound her in. "Whoops, almost forgot to free ya." With ease, Lusk untied his daughter.

"Did those damn hyenas hurt you badly? Did they try to touch you in an inappropriate-"

"Dad!" Amara shouted. "I'm fine, really."

"You sure? Cause' I swear if they did-"

"I think they've learned their lesson, Dad. Besides, you shot the leader's hands off." Amara remarked.

"Yeah that is true... ah come here you." And Lusk embraced Amara in a cozy hug. It caught Amara by surprise, but she warmed up to the feeling.

On the inside, Amara felt all warm and fuzzy. She hadn't felt like this in years. (Except when she was close to Infinite at certain times.) After a brief moment, the two released each other and looked into one another's eyes.

"You doing alright, Amara?" Lusk asked with concern.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." Amara replied, folding her ears back. "Thanks for.. saving me of course. I- I should've done better in that situation, but I..."

Amara started to tear up. Worst part, in front of her own father. She never cried around anyone but Infinite, but this was the first time she ever got this emotional over something not completely tragic.

"Whoa whoa whoa- hey listen. You were nearly defenseless and badly injured. Those creeps thought they had ya but your good ol' dad stopped em'! Haha!" Lusk said with cockiness.

Amara laughed at her father's words. For an old man, he sure knew how to lighten up the mood.

"But really Dad... thank you." Amara spoke, once again hugging him.

"Anytime sweetie, your dad is always here to protect you. Now, let's get back to the Jackal Squad, shall we?"


End file.
